best complaints

ok..this world is full of very..oh shall we say colorful people..what are some of the best complaints you have had from a customer...<br>mine is my first year..and i had this lady living in a trailer court and it was real small lawn. well i was mowing it with a 21&quot; push and she kept telling me to mow it shorter.(she thought by mowing it shorter it would be less frequent mowings..duh) well man i was down to my last setting and i was scalping the you know what out of that baby...well her daughter was there one day and she stops me while i'm mowing and says..&quot;my mother would like you to cut it(grass) shorter&quot; losing it and not caring about the account what so ever..&quot; i look at the daugter and say calmly..&quot;well, mam you can mow your mother's lawn ..because i Quit&quot; she goes &quot;oh you can't do that&quot; i say &quot;oh yes i can&quot; as i throw my mower in my trailer and proceed to drive away in a nice calm manner...<br>now while i don't get my jollies out of treating people that way..it's unbelievable that some people uuh..should i say lack common sense..<br>ps..<br>she did pay me for that mowing.....

 

I'm deviating from the lighter side here, but when it comes to mowing height I tell our customers that we're licensed professionals and we mow at the height specified by Michigan State. (University)<p>They think I'll jeopordize my licence by changing mowing heights. I don't correct them. Misleading? maybe, but it eliminates the conversation about it.<p>Anyway, on the lighter side, I had a lady say she was not satisfied with the way her lawn had been done. Edging missed, trimming poor, grass shaggy, etc., etc. <p>We hadn't even been there yet that week. <br>

 

I've got a bunch of 'em. But here's a one.<p>One woman we had been mowing for had a new boyfriend that just moved in with her. He seemed to know a little about everything and how things should be done. I admit I let customers slide on paying sometimes and especially if I've had them awhile and end up collecting like 3 months at a time. Well anyway, this guy comes out and tells me the weeds in the back bed need to be taken care of and if I don't have time there are plenty of people who can. I don't like to be threatened by some jackass who just moves in, you know. So I say &quot;you haven't been living here too long and I don't think you understand our agreement.&quot; He says &quot;I understand you are not doing your job.&quot; I am really getting pissed at this point. I say &quot;where is Mrs. ****? He says &quot;you don't need to talk to her, I take care of this stuff now.&quot; I said &quot;Ok, that's cool. Then perhaps you are aware I haven't been paid in 3 months. And our agreement never included weeding the beds.&quot; He stands there for a minute in shock, then walks toward the house. He comes back a little while later and says &quot; Here's your money for the 3 months, umm the lawn looks great, maybe you can give us an estimate for weeding the beds, trimming some hedges and mulching.&quot;<br>

 

I normally leave a bill once a month. This one lady had'nt paid in over three months. I knocked on her door, she opens it with her phone stuck to her ear and says (can I help you ?) I say, Did you get the bill I left you ? She stands there in a daze for a moment, then tells the person on the phone,let me call you back. She then chews me out because , get this &quot;Her friend may of heard me on the phone trying to collect.This would be very embaresing for her.&quot; It seems to me that if you live in a 250,000. house and you are barely makeing it, wouldn't it make sence to get you a 200,000 house and live easy. That 500. a month would pay for 1.Lawn 2.Pool 3.Cleaning (house) 4.Mabey some left over to buy gas for the new BMW. Bobby

 

Not really a compaint,but I reckon its <br>worth mentioning.When I first started out in<br>slashing(bush hogging) I went to slash 2 acres just down the road.At the time I was<br>running an old 4 wheel drive tractor.On the <br>first lap of the site,the tractor slid down<br>an embankment.Unfortunately I could'nt reverse up the embankment as there was a large boulder i couldn't get back over.So the only way was foward.Prpblem with going foward was that there was an old out house<br>in front of me.So rather than pay for a backhoe to pull me out,I put 'er in low range<br>with 4WD and diff locks and plowed straight<br>over the old crapper.Completely flattened it.<br>6 months later I came back with a new tractor<br>and the neighbours didn't recognise me.They<br>came out and asked me if I could pull the <br>smashed remains of the fence that the previous &quot;lunatic&quot; left there.Talk about <br>insult to injury! Worst part is,other contractors found out and I still haven't<br>heard the end of it.<br>p.s. Outhouse had only been emptied the<br>day before.

 

This was not from work that I had done, but that others had done on one of my customers properties. It was a little old lady that has been taken advantage of by every repair person that set foot in her house. <p>She had some major landscaping done around the house, tree removal, new islands, retaining walls, maybe a total of $25-30K. There were many yards of mulch installed there, maybe 20? Around here, all mulch is hardwood bark mulch and wood pieces. <p>This woman is never satisfied. She can find something to complain about no matter what. She was asking me about the work that had been done by the other contractor. IT was fine, I didn't see anything wrong with it. She was extremely dis-satisfied. She then said to me &quot; Look, there are wood chips in my mulch!&quot; I didn't really know how to respond to that comment. I explaineed to her that is what mulch is. She then said&quot; I still don't know why they would want to put wood chips in the mulch&quot;. Keep in mind that these were not huge chunks of wood.<p>Another favorite of mine ws another little old lady that would panic if she saw me load my mower on the trailer, then open the door to the cab of the truck. She assumed that I was leaving without trimming or claening up. She was so paraniod about this, she would stay out in the yard, and say &quot;this isn't trimmed, That needs trimmed&quot;. This was before I even picked up a trimmer. Hope I don't get like that when I get old...

 

I heard this story today on Paul Harvey and this seems as good of place as any to retell the story.<p>Last fall the SMU band performed at TCU during halftime of the football game. While the band had spelled at the letters SMU, they reached into their pockets and threw out perennial rye grass. Now in the middle of the dormant bermuda grass, the rye grass has come up with the bright green letters SMU in the middle of the TCU foortball field.

 

Charles,<p>Were you &quot;performing&quot; services in the same trailer park as Slager?<p>In ancient society before the minting of coinage a &quot;Lewinsky&quot; was accepted as barter<br>for services rendered.<p>Did you actually get paid for the lawn work too?

 

That Lawrence always has been an old-fashioned type of guy.&lt;p&gt;John<br>